Introduction (19)

Effective Treatment Interventions with Family

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Introduction

Family treatment interventions are vital as they have been designed to deal with specific problems affecting people’s functioning and health. It is common for families to go through rough times, significant transitions, behavioral and mental problems hence the need to employ effective treatment interventions. The type of therapy and technique used to treat families depends on the target population and the specific issue affecting the individuals. This literature review aims to analyze and interpret family-based interventions used on various individuals within the family set up when they are experiencing health difficulties. This research could not be timelier; it comes when little research has been conducted on the effectiveness of various interventions used to treat families. The following review confirms that practices including functional family therapy (FFT), goal-oriented parental interventions, family-focused alternatives ,community-based alternatives to incarceration, family interventions for schizophrenia, and the psychoses and family-based management interventions for children with obesity improve have proved effective in improving family well-being.

Community-based and family-focused alternatives to incarceration

Ryon, Early, and Kosloski evaluated community-based and institutional placements intervention programs for delinquent youths in 2017 intending to examine the impact of a family-focused approach to deal with juvenile offenders. The authors assessed Parenting with Love and Limits (PLL), a family-focused and community-based approach piloted in Florida to treat juvenile offenders with the aim of diverting youth away from residential facilities. Ryon, Early, and Kosloski discovered that the youth that had gone through the PLL program had averagely low recidivism rates. The article opined that community-based interventions attained lower rates of a felony conviction, reconviction, and subsequent placement in a justice system after one year of completing the program. The article concluded that community-based programs that incorporate both group and family-focused individuals are viable and effective alternatives to institutional placements are more restrictive for delinquent youths.

Functional Family Therapy (FFT).

Sexton (2010) found functional family therapy (FFT) to be an efficient and successful family-based treatment program in treating various problems that affect young people, including mental health problems, drug and substance abuse, conduct disorder, truancy, and other related problems. Noteworthy Sexton found that Functional Family Therapy treats families within various multicultural, multiethnic, and geographical contexts. Sexton discovered that the FFT program benefited more than 40,000 youths and families annually following its implementation in more than 300 communities across Europe and the United States over the past few decades. Moreover, Sexton noted that the program’s delivery and implementation in communities is based on five theoretical principles. He also noted that FFT employs technologies to enhance its outcomes, including the use of measurement feedback systems, a systematic measurement system, and a web-based quality improvement system. The article notes that since the FFT family-based treatment program is manual driven, these tools act as an accompaniment to the supervision and treatment manual protocol.

Parent Engagement and Family Reunification for Children in out-of-home Care

Lack of parental engagement remains the greatest challenge for family re-unitement after temporary child placement in out-of-home care services. Maltais, Cyr, Parent, and Pascuzzo (2019) conducted meta-analyses on studies for 2996 families to identify the most effective practices that can be used to promote family reunification and parental engagement. The authors examined the efficacy of goal-oriented parental engagement interventions and compared them to a group whose parents had standard services. The article revealed that parents that received goal-oriented engagement strategies were more and had higher chances of a smooth reunification with children receiving care away from home than parents that received standard services. The authors analyzed six interventions in the analyses, including training of child care staff, strategies promoting access to intervention, type of clinical modality, sources of motivation, focusing on the relationship between child care staff and parents and a number of clinical strategies. The authors came to the conclusion that results that family-focused interventions are effective in promoting parental engagement.

Family engagement for schizophrenia and the psychoses

McFarlane (2016) reviews the family interventions for Schizophrenia and Psychoses, treatment programs that came into being 40 years ago. As opposed to concentrating on the traditional goal of decreasing emotion to prevent relapse, McFarlane focuses on the social and role functioning of the family well being. The article refutes claims that family pathology leads to deterioration and relapse and affirms that family engagement in psychoeducation is an effective alternative. McFarlane noted that family engagement complements interventions provided by clinicians with specialized coping and interaction skills that counter the neurologic deficits inherent to the particular disorder. McFarlane concluded that family interventions indicate a 50-60% relapse rate reduction compared to usual treatment. He found that a combination of the prodromal psychosis alongside other evidence-based interventions is yielding promising results that include significant return to normalcy and total avoidance of psychosis altogether.

Parental Involvement in Treating Childhood Obesity

Faith-based interventions have solutions that are commonly employed when treating childhood obesity. Chai, Collins, May, Brain, See, and Burrows (2019) review the effectiveness of interventions for managing weight that are family-based in children with obesity. The article reveals that when it comes to treating childhood obesity, direct parental involvement improves the outcomes. The authors carried out systematic reviews on family-based interventions in children below 18 years, categorized their weight as obese or overweight. The article revealed that 13 in 14 of the total reviews proved successful in improving weight-related behavior in children. Chai, Collins, May, Brain, See, and Burrows concluded that family-based interventions that target parents either single-handedly or with their child have proved useful in managing child weight.

Conclusion

Practices including functional family therapy (FFT ), goal-oriented parental interventions, community-based and family-oriented alternatives to incarceration, Family interventions for schizophrenia, and psychoses and family-based weight running interventions for overweight and obesity children have proved effective in improving family well-being. There is a need to conduct further research to complement the lack of substantial evidence, particularly regarding the emerging interventions for parents in addressing obesity in children. Health practitioners must collaborate with change agents and focus on being role models for children to emulate when managing their weight. Future research should explore parent-child interventions and include a variety of populations.

References

Chai, L. K., Collins, C., May, C., Brain, K., See, D. W., & Burrows, T. (2019). Effectiveness of family-based weight management interventions for children with overweight and obesity: an umbrella review. JBI Evidence Synthesis, 17(7), 1341-1427.

Maltais, C., Cyr, C., Parent, G., & Pascuzzo, K. (2019). Identifying effective interventions for promoting parent engagement and family reunification for children in out-of-home care: A series of meta-analyses. Child abuse & neglect, 88, 362-375.

McFarlane, W. R. (2016). Family interventions for schizophrenia and the psychoses: A review. Family Process, 55(3), 460-482.

Ryon, S. B., Early, K. W., & Kosloski, A. E. (2017). Community-based and family-focused alternatives to incarceration: A quasi-experimental evaluation of interventions for delinquent youth. Journal of Criminal Justice, 51, 59-66.

Sexton, T. L. (2017). Functional family therapy. The Encyclopedia of Juvenile Delinquency and Justice, 1-7.